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Petition from the Society of Friends, Charles City County (December 14, 1831)

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In a petition to the General Assembly, dated December 14, 1831, the
Virginia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers), in Charles City County, asks lawmakers to emancipate the state's
enslaved African and restore to
them full civil rights.

Transcription from Original

To the Senate and House of Delegates of Virginia in general Assembly.

The Memorial and Petition of the religious Society of Friends, of Virginia Yearly
Meeting respectfully shows.

That your Memorialists, under a deep sense of the responsibility which rests upon
them, both as Citizens of this State and as a Christian Community, desire to call
your attention to a Subject of the utmost importance. From the republican nature of
our government, the citizens of this State possess in a preeminent manner the
privilege of presenting their views of important Subject for Legislative
consideration, and on some occasions, they must be under the imperious obligation of
doing so. In addition to this obligation, which arises from the formation of our
government and the inseparable connection of our interests with the present
memorial—the influence of a Christian Solicitude for the preservation and happiness,
not only of ourselves and those identified with our homes and the tenderest ties of
nature—but also of our fellow Citizens and our beloved country in the most
comprehensive construction of the term. In common with all other Christian
denominations, we believe that the most High rules in the nations of the earth,
exercising his Power and Providence throughout his vast incalculable dominions. All
History combines in an unbroken chain in Support of a belief in the interposition of
God in human affairs. The rise and fall of Empires bear testimony, which cannot be
resisted of the riches of his goodness, the chastisements of his displeasure and
sometimes of the terrors of his judgments. Those dispensations of an overruling
Providence have ever been in intimate connection with the Laws he has established for
the government of his rational creatures. While his wrath has been revealed from
heaven against the Children of disobedience. While the most potent empires have sunk
beneath the stroke of His rod—his goodness, power and Providence through all the ages
have been displayed on behalf of those who have made his righteous law, their rules
of action, who depended on the direction of his Wisdom; and trusted for deliverance
and support in His Almighty arms.

The present important crisis demands in a peculiar manner an humbling remembrance of
the goodness and Sovereignty of the Almighty. The people of the United States and of
this Commonwealth have abundant cause for reverent acknowledgment of the
interposition of a gracious Providence. His blessings have been bountifully dispensed
to us, and his hand has been made manifest in preserving us from many impending
dangers. As intelligent beings, we are called upon to bow under a sense of the
Sovereignty of God. We are bound to acknowledge the immutability of his Law, and the
perfection of all his attributes, and took to Him for direction in the administration
of our public affairs. In this state of mind, there cannot be a doubt that if we
follow his counsel in the fulfillment of his law, his blessings will be a wall of
preservation around about us. Solemnly impressed with a sense that we cannot disarm
his judgments and that in the way of obedience we may confidently trust in his
providential care, we would call your attention to an evil in our Country an evil
which has been of long continuance, and is now of increasing magnitude. We allude to
the condition of the African race in our land. We need not apprehend on the present
occasion [to] descend in detail into the consequences of this evil, either present or
prospective,—as respects that suffering and degraded class of the human family, or as
relates to us and to our fellow citizen. It is admitted on all hands, that the first
principles of our republican institution and the immutable laws of justice and
humanity have long been violated. Not only have the effects of the system upon our
national prosperity been seen, but its demoralizing tendency and its ultimate awful
consequences have been sufficiently developed to demand legislative interference.

We believe that as our present difficulties and dangers originated in a departure
from the laws of justice and humanity, which the Creator has fixed for the government
of his rational creatures in their intercourse with each other; so nothing short of
an abandonment of the cause from which the present state of things has arisen can be
regarded as an effectual remedy. We have seen that by a perseverance in a system
repugnant to the laws of God, and subversive of the rights, and destructive to the
happiness of man, there has been an awful increase, bot of the difficulties and
dangers by which we are surrounded. We, therefore, solemnly believe that some
efficient system for the abolition of slavery in the Commonwealth and restoration of
the African race to the inalienable rights of man is imperiously demanded by the laws
of God, and inseparably connected with the best interests of the Commonwealth at
large. The voice of justice and humanity has been repeatedly raised on behalf of the
victims of oppression. But the appeal embraces no the sable children of Africa alone;
the peace, the safety, the prosperity and happiness of all classes are included in
the policy dictated by the spirit of our government, the feelings implanted in our
nature and the laws, which the great Sovereign of the Universe has himself
promulgated from Heaven.

Under a view of the claims of justice and humanity on behalf of a deeply injured
race, and the various responsibilities, which rest upon this Commonwealth in regard
to their present condition, we submit for your consideration the propriety of passing
an Act, declaring that all person born in the State after some period, to be fixed by
law, shall be free, and also that the State of Virginia, provide some territory, or
solicit the aid of the United States in providing one, for the formation of a Colony
for people of color, and also to aid in removing such free persons as may be disposed
[to] emigrate, and such slaves as may be given up for that purpose. We implore the
continuance of the mercies and blessings of God upon our beloved Country. We pray
that he may graciously condescend to direct your understandings of the Wisdom, which
is from above, in considering and resolving this most momentous Subject, in which the
rights and happiness of the present and future generations are so deeply involved
that through your instrumentality, his benedictions may be shed upon our Country and
the blessings of those who are ready to perish may come upon you.

Signed by direction and on behalf of the Representatives of the Society foresaid,
held in Charles City County the 24th of the 11th month 1831 by Fleming Bates.